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Topic: news Workplace Face Off: Chinese vs. Foreign Employees

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As I've been advising Chinese students for years, there's no point in their going abroad and trying to find a job - for them or for us - unless they work specifically with their being Chinese as a skill in itself. Should they fail to do so they'll end up washing dishes. Were I not using my own 'foreignness' as the basis of my employment in China, I too would be washing dishes. I work in QC here, an area in which foreigners are specifically sought by importing western companies for reasons news stories make all too clear. We're out of the guanxi and other pressure loops and QC here is now big business for foreigners. That will change in due course, but not while outdated industrial practices are institutionalised. Prior to working in QC I was an English teacher and still keep in touch with that area of employment, though without any paid involvement. Shanghai is one thing, but I can assure you, beyond the attraction of a high wage in such places colleges and universities are in a greater state of crisis than they have ever been in my ten years here in seeking out foreign teachers. The campus closest to where I live is down to a single foreign teacher, I believe, and it is a foreign language college. There are many reasons for this but it underlines an old point; Shanghai is 'not China'.

Mar 25, 2010 19;38
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